Winter Passions
by MMaru
Summary: Kei's quite accustomed to Ran's fan club, but a new face in the gang catches his attention. This young man isn't what Kei is expecting, and an unexpected storm could be the provider of more than a few surprises.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Kizuna or any rights to it.

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Kei scowled, rubbing his eyes tiredly. As usual, he was running late. He'd meant to go to his afternoon lecture, then pick up Ranmaru and take him out to dinner. As it was, he'd worked late the night before, and so, after his morning class, he'd come home for a nap. Unfortunately, his nap had turned into a slumber, and he had not only missed his lecture, he was now ten minutes late to pick Ran up. To make matters worse, a faint snow had begun to fall, making the roads a bit slippery, and traffic had slowed down.

Kei ground his teeth as he pulled into his usual parking spot. Ran's fan club stood nearby, chatting with each other. As soon as they saw the car, they flocked over. Kei barely had time to get out and light a cigarette before they began to barrage him.

"Kei! Is Ran with you?"

"Are you here to pick up Ranmaru?"

"No, I just thought I'd stop by and show off my ride," Kei growled, flicking some ash off of his cigarette. "You've seen it, so scram."

"Aww, Kei, you're so grumpy today. We just want to see Ranmaru!"

"Yea, you get to see him all the time, you only see him at school."

"Don't you guys have anything better to do than bother me? Get out of here!"

With a flared dramatic disappointment, the boys finally began to walk away.

"Give Ran my love!"

Kei picked up some snow, packing it into a ball which he threw at the young man who had last spoken.

"I'm not his damned secretary! Give it to him yourself!"

Kei scowled as he watched the group leave. They never seemed to give up. Most of the time he could take it with a grain of salt, but today, he was still sleepy, and he was cold, and already the snow was beginning to thicken which would make the roads worse. Kei turned around to go back to the car, wanting to warm it up so that it wouldn't be too cold for Ran. As he turned, something caught his eye. There was a brief flash, then, as Kei peered through the snow, he saw a young man standing there. How he'd missed the youth was beyond him. The young man was a dark shadow amidst the falling snow. Shining, ink-black hair topped his head, carefully braided back. Deep pools of black gazed out from behind a pair of silver-framed glasses. Even the uniform that the boy wore was dark and immaculate. Kei stalked back toward the car, ready to scare the devotee off as well. The boy's eyes widened as he approached, and the youth bowed, holding out an envelope.

"Enjoyji-sama –" the young man started, but Kei cut him off, smacking the envelope out of the boy's hands.

"What did I just say?" Kei demanded. "I'm not his secretary!"

The boy stared at Kei for a moment. Kei was about to scoop up some more snow for another snowball when the young man suddenly stuttered an apology and ran off. Kei watched the black spot fade away into the snow, not quite sure what had scared him off.

"Now, that wasn't very nice of you, Kei."

Kei turned, his anger immediately melting away. Ran stood, smiling softly at him, leaning against the car. Kei scowled, pulling out another cigarette.

"Why should I be nice to those morons?" he grumbled. Ran merely chuckled, taking a look around to make sure there was no one in sight before he gave Kei a quick kiss.

"Sorry I'm late," Ran murmured, crossing in front of the car to get in. He paused, bending to pick up the envelope that had landed in the snow before joining Kei in the car. Kei scowled, backing out of his parking space as Ran turned the envelope over in his hands.

"I don't know why you bother with those things," he growled. "You should have left it in the snow there."

"It's for you," Ran responded lightly. Kei glanced at the envelope. The black marks on the front were indeed the characters of his own name rather than Ran's. He turned his eyes back to the road despite his peaked curiosity.

"Kei," Ran said suddenly. "Did you miss your class today?"

Kei laughed uneasily. Since Ran had been running late as well, he hadn't intended to mention that he'd slept through another one of his classes. He glanced over at his lover, whose lips were drawn in the straight line that they tended to form in when he was about to get stern.

"Why would I miss class?" Kei asked, attempting to be coy.

"Why would you need someone else's lecture notes if you were there?" Ran snapped.

Kei parked the car in front of the apartment, snatching the envelope. Inside were two sheets of paper, carefully folded, with neatly written notes from the biology class that Kei had missed. He followed Ran inside, kicking off his shoes as he glanced over it.

"So, now you have someone taking notes for you?"

Ran's voice was unusually cold as it interrupted Kei's thoughts. Kei looked blankly at his partner.

"I didn't ask him to, Ran... I don't even know – wait… are you… jealous?"

Ran flushed and turned away. Kei smiled to himself. Part of him felt a certain sense of smug victory. All of Ran's admonitions about how cross Kei got over people dogging him every day about his roommate, and now the tables were turned. But his victory was short-lived as he saw that Ran was truly upset. Kei set the notes carefully down on the table, then came up behind Ran, wrapping his arms around him.

"You're such a jealous lover," Kei whispered, his lips brushing against Ran's ear. Ran blushed a bit, trying to pull away, but Kei's hold was firm.

"I thought you were the smart one here. When are you going to learn that you are the only one that I want in my life?"

Ran bit his lip, trying not to cry.

"I can't help it, Kei. I can't understand sometimes… you could have any man or woman in the world… why limit yourself to just me?"

Kei smiled softly, kissing the back of Ran's neck until he man moaned in spite of the tiny trickle of a tear.

"I'm not limiting anything, Ran. You are my everything. If I have you, then I have everything."

"Kei…"

The snow swirled outside in the wind, the white dust kicking up and chilling the air. But the cold could not penetrate the small apartment where the lovers came together in the heat of passion.


	2. Chapter 2

Kei had considered the matter closed, but the next afternoon when he came home from his classes, he was met with a rather unpleasant surprise. From outside the door, he could hear giggling. He slid the door open with a loud smack, his glare immediately fixing on the young man that sat at the table next to Ranmaru. The boy turned to Kei with a bright smile.

"Hey, bro."

Kei felt the muscle at the corner of his eye twitch. He turned his gaze to his lover.

"What the hell is Kai doing here?"

Ran was about to answer, but Kai interrupted.

"Ran invited me over," he said brightly, though Kei could already catch the sharp edge in his little brother's tone. "He asked me to bring over some milk since he knew you would forget and not take care of it."

Kei ground his teeth, smacking his half-brother over the head. Still, he couldn't exactly object – Ran had asked him to pick up some milk on the way home and it had slipped his mind. Kai smirked up at him. Kei growled, grabbing his little brother by the collar and dragging him towards the door.

"Well, you brought the milk and now you can leave. Goodbye!"

"Kei!" Ran exclaimed.

"Let go of me, asshole!" Kai hissed. "Ran invited me to stay the night!"

Kei lost his grip, and Kai broke free, glaring at his brother. Ran stood behind the younger man, looking calmly at Kei. He knew that no matter how much the two brothers hated each other, they'd tolerate one another if he asked them to. He turned to Kei a bit apologetically.

"I was trying to find out about that boy that got the notes for you. I thought maybe you should thank him. Kai brought over his school directory since you threw ours away, and I invited him to stay the night since the weather is supposed to get worse. We can't have him riding his bike around on slippery roads, Kei."

Kei scowled, shooting Kai a warning glare. He finally came over to the table, flopping down. There were a few books out, and he pulled one over to himself. It was an old yearbook from back when he and Ran had been perhaps fourteen or fifteen. Kei couldn't help but grin as he flipped through a few of the pages.

"What are these old things out for?" he asked.

"I was just showing Kai some of my old kendo photos," Ran said, sitting beside his lover and looking over his shoulder at the yearbook. Kai plopped down on the other side.

"Who's that loser?" Kai said, pointing to Kei's face in the Library Club photo. Kei swatting at his little brother, but Ran reached out to jerk the yearbook closer to himself, inspecting the picture.

"Hey… isn't that the guy from yesterday?"

Ran laid the book back down on the table, pointing to the picture while the other two men leaned in. Kei blinked. The face hovering in the row behind his own did indeed look quite a bit like the young man who'd approached him the day before.

"What guy from yesterday?" Kai asked, his curiosity aroused.

"Some kid took notes for me in my class the other day," Kei responded, staring at the photo as he tried to place a name to the face. "One of Ran's groupies trying to suck up to me to get closer to him."

Kai's eye narrowed and he leaned closer, trying to get a look at his latest competition. His suspicion quickly faded when he saw the timid mouse of a boy in the second row.

"Oh, that's Reisuke Akimata," he said off-handedly.

"You know him?" Ran asked.

Kei nodded. "He's in a few of my classes at school – he just transferred this year. He's nothing to worry about."

The last sentence was directed at Kei, who just nodded absently. He could vaguely recall the mousey boy in the library club years ago. The boy had been so intensely shy that even Kei, infamous for making sure he knew a little something about everyone in the club, had been unable to get to know him. Of course, the young boy in the picture was now a young man who had grown into a handsome youth, and certainly more bold now than he had been before. He knew that he didn't have to worry about Reisuke taking Ran away from him, yet he couldn't help but be annoyed. It was bad enough dealing with the group of Ran's loyal followers hounding him every day, but to now have Reisuke trying to get closer to Kei in order to get to Ran? That was just low. Luckily Kei knew that Ran wasn't the type to fall for those sort of tricks.

"Let's have him over for dinner sometime," Ran suggested brightly before Kei even had the time to finish his thought.


End file.
